Zen and/in Beginning Design Education
Routledge eBooks October 3, 2018 DOI: 10.4324/9781315622927-7 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Buddhism |
| Key points | Argues that Zen practice, by cultivating a "beginner's mind" through dropping preconceptions and conditioning, is highly relevant to beginning design pedagogy and creative thinking, and that Zen's long tradition of training this condition supports bringing its insights into design education. |
Abstract
The very practice of Zen is about turning the human mind on itself in order to directly experience the ungraspable, non-intellectual, and present-centered nature of being. Dropping off preconceptions, preferences, hopes, knowledge, and the like produces a deep mental cleansing that rescues the self from the grip of conditioning and returns it to its natural beginner&s;s mind: what in Zen is termed the "original" face or nature. The growing recognition of the relevance of contemplative practice, mindfulness, and other related spiritual teachings to education provides further evidence and context to the timeliness and validity of bringing Zen insights to inform beginning design pedagogy and creativity. The beginner&s;s mind condition is very relevant to beginning design pedagogy and creative thinking, and consequently deserves inquiry. For millennia, Zen has been successfully training people in the practice of attaining and maintaining a beginner&s;s mind amidst real life conditions.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on buddhism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mental balance and well-being: Building bridges between Buddhism and Western psychology. | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience | 1995 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist and Psychological Perspectives on Emotions and Well-Being | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Too Early to Tell: The Potential Impact and Challenges—Ethical and Otherwise—Inherent in the Mainstreaming of Dharma in an Increasingly Dystopian World | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From self to nonself: The Nonself Theory | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |